Kerzan comes to with a splitting headache and a dizzying vertigo.
"Urgh... What did I drink?! Last time I felt this bad was the morning after I defended my dissertation...
Ah, Voyla, I feel slightly better now, thank you! My dreams were quite disturbing actually - something about people getting cut in half, blood and gore everywhere... Eeek - that was not a dream, was it? What is that monstrosity - is that... was that Delfina?!
I solemnly swear not to accept free lunch from strangers while in this country, I should have known better...
"Yeah, sorry for that."
She gently helps Kerzan stand.
Tania looks at Kerzan with a friendly smile. She liked the Halfling's open heart. His trust in people gave her hope.
"Ok, one less monster in the Shudderwoods. I can drink to that, and to a warm roof over my head this night!" she says, getting the whiskey out.
The party burns the undead creature and finds 100 gp in the home. You rest comfortably overnight in the small cabin.
In the morning, you continue on your trek through the Shudderwood. An hour into your trip, you come across another strange sight. About 20' ahead of you, you see the pale corpse of a naked man hangs from a large yellow pine, bound to the trunk with rough cords. His mouth is stuffed with large, pale purple flowers, and his wrists and ankles are swollen and dark with bruises marking where his bindings cut into his skin, but the large silver hunting knife embedded deep in his heart seems the most likely cause of death.
Kerzan prepares Lesser Restoration instead of Cat's Grace and makes an infusion for Tania in the morning.
Having had a great sleep in a warm bed with a roof above her head, Tania is all smile in the morning. She seems impervious to the Shudderwoods' darkness.
"After all, the old hag did indeed turn out to be quite the host. Her pantry was found wanting, but I have decided not to make a thing of it."
She accepts with a wider smile the potion proffered by her old friend and gulps it in one long swallow. "Master Kerzan, you have a way with drinks! But is there not a way to add spirit to the healing properties of your concoctions? I mean, it heals, yes, but could it not warm the warrior's soul like an old whiskey does?"
As they reach the dead man, she whistles a warning and turns to the woods around them, keeping watch while the others do their thing.
In the morning, Althamis smiles at the brawler after her drink, "Good to have you back, Tania. Your face is redder and full of life." When he sees the corpse later, the paladin approaches the corpse, his twin daggers in his hands, looking for any ambushes or traps.
As Althamis approaches the corpse, he notices a cleverly hidden tripwire in front of the body, connected to a set of crossbows hidden in the leaves of the tree's branches. With expert skill, he disables the trap. When you bring down the crossbow and loaded bolts, Althamis notices a smear of paste on the tip of bolts.
You can make several observations about the scene:
As he examines the scene, the hafling rubs his chin. "Well, my friends, the purple flowers here in the corpse's mouth are wolfsbane, a deadly poison said to cure one of lycanthropy (werewolf curse), if you can survive the effects of the poison that is. The paste here on these is comprised of dried flakes of silversheen, which have long lost their properties. Hmmm....seeing the scene and the obvious silver dagger, it is obvious whomever killed this man thought he was a werewolf and wanted to make sure it was dead. It seems the trap was laid in case his werewolf buddies came to help. Whether he was or not, there is no way of telling."
Voyla comes to the same conclusion.
"I guess there may be some strife between the humans and the werewolves in these parts. This has the feel of the trap of a hunter of some sort. We should be wary." Althamis says a prayer for the deceased's soul and plucks the silver dagger from his chest. "This corpse, even if a werewolf, won't be coming back from this. Let's move on."
"Poor way to go. Werewolf or no... Should we keep the wolfsbane?" comments Tania.
"If it's a cure for lycanthropy, sure. Ya never know if one of us gets bitten by one of those things."
"I would think it's expected for the humans and the werewolves to be at odds. But this looks awfully... deliberate. Perhaps the Ascanor lodge hunters have chosen the werebeasts as their quarry? I suppose finding the lodge should give us some answers to these happenings."
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Voyla seems uneasy when Althamis plucks the dagger from the body, and seems very reluctant at getting the flowers from the corpse's mouth.
"We should bury him. We can't leave it hanging like that."
She will lower the body with care, and proceed to bury him, by herself if no one else help her.
"Voyla, I have no love loss for this poor soul. If he was a werewolf, he was a vicious evil creature that needed to be put down. And if he wasn't, then what was he doing in these woods, where as we have found to date, only evil abounds? I will help cut him down, but I am not burying him. Hell, we cremated the adventurers we found previously and those were good souls who did not deserve their fates. This corpse should get the same treatment: cremation."
Althamis helps cut the corpse down and if no one else takes the flowers, he grabs them and stuffs him in his backpack. After the cremation, we move on.
Voyla shakes her head.
We don't know who this poor soul was, and we can't assume he was evil. I am just saying we can't leave him hanging there. Let's cremate him, and I will make a prayer for his soul, whoever he was."
"A corpse is just a corpse... Until it rises again I guess. Yeah, let's burn him and send him to the Boneyard. Forever." offers Tania. She keeps an eye on their surroundings while the others work. Keeping them safe, while keeping her fancy new crimson doublet safer.
"More burning corpses... the smell of the adventurers' charred flesh still haunts me. I would rather bury him. But you're right, we shouldn't leave the body like that, unless we want to have an undead werewolf on our hands!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
After the cremation of the "werewolf", the party continues on their trek through the Shudderwood. Even during the day, the sun does not pierce fully the forest canopy and a sense of gloom pervades the forest. An hour later, as the party enters a clearing, they see fresh pieces of corpses strewn about, their torsos crushed, including a couple of humans and a horse, and an overturned carriage. In the center of the clearing and the massacre, about 30' away, you see two giant skeletal ogres wielding giant bloodied greatclubs! Two pinpoints of blue unholy energy can be see in their eye sockets. They stand there and speak in unison, almost daring you to challenge them, "None shall pass!"
"Let's destroy those abominations!"
Voyla identifies the undead ogre as a skeleton champion.
Both arrows hit, inflicting 19 points of damage to one skeleton!
Round 1:
The giant skeletons again speak, sounds emanating from them though their jaws do not move, "Since you did not take the warning I left you with the corpses, my pets will now crush your bones into dust!" After the short speech, the skeletons rush Voyla and ...Tania!
The skeletons rush in with the greatclubs and raise them over their heads and bring them down with cruel precision and strength, breaking ribs and bones in the process! Voyla nearly dies from the blow, as she coughs up blood and holds her shattered ribs in pain...she knows another strike like that will surely kill her! Tania also does not think she can withstand such a blow!
Seeing the damage inflicted by the skeletons, Althamis' hatred for undead takes over and he moves 5' toward the skeleton who was wounded by Voyla's arrows and full-attacks it with his blades!
The ogre skeletal champion collapses into a heap of bones as the paladin's blows end its existence!
Tania grunts as she is almost send on her butt from the blow. She spits blood and offers it to Pharasma: "You who have forsaken this life, know that She is your only true Queen, and that Her judgment has now come!"
She slides forward and attacks the champion, her hands imbued with Her Blessing.
Kerzan instinctively recoils at the sight of carnage the huge skeletons wrought on the travelers - and now, his companions!
He shouts, alarmed: "Beware, these are not mere skeletons - they retain some intelligence and could be directed by whoever speaks to us through them! Go for the kneecaps - that's what we halflings do when we face ogres!"
He then lets loose an arrow which hits the big skeleton on its giant skull, ricocheting with a plink. No harm is done but the skeleton jerks its head, looking for the source of the annoyance.
Voyla grunts after receiving the blow, but smiles at the combined attack of his friends.
She takes a step back, and fires again.
"Keep attacking, we have them!"
Tania's unarmed blows chip several bones off the Ogre skeleton, staggering it. One of Voyla's arrows finds its mark but fails to bring down the undead beast.
Round 2:
The staggered Ogre skeleton realizes its imminent destruction. A refined voice emanates from its skull, "It seems I have underestimated you, I will have to deal with you personally." The skeletal champion raises its club and brings it down on Tania again, dealing another crushing blow, but the Brawler still stands...barely!
Althamis 5' steps west and full-attacks the last skeleton. "Face me, you undead abomination!"
The skeleton collapses in a heap after the paladin's first blow, even with DR, and the voice fades away.
Voyla kneels next to Tania, and gets his Cure Light Wounds wand out.
"Those skeletons got me worried for a second there."
He proceeds to heal them both.
"Dangerous foes...hard-hitting. Looks like we're in someone's sights, the same person who may have killed the previous adventuring party."
"We will make them pay for what they did."
"I'm glad you guys brought them down, or I'd have to make someone pay for my soiled undergarments!
Seriously though, skeletal ogres?! That cult may be powerful but they sorely lack creativity. It may make our investigation easier than I anticipated."
With a mixed look of concern and disgust on his face, Kerzan will inspect the grisly scene - the victims and the cart, as well as the skeletons for any clues left by their creators.
"Yes, Voyla, we will avenge them." After Kerzan's search, we continue our trek to the Lodge.
"I hope that person finds its way to us soon... I will have a thing or two to say to him!" reflects Tania as she gets healed. She had been badly wounded and would replay the battle in her head time and time again as they make their way to the lodge, looking for a better strategy against such powerful, yet limited foes.
Kerzan notices that the skeletal tracks in the clearing are fresh, about a day old and confined to the path so they were placed or ordered to stand guard not long ago. You also find consumed remains of gems sprinkled about the site. You can tell with Spellcraft that onyx gems are one of the material components of Create Undead, a very powerful necromantic spell able of creating Skeletal Champions.
As you continue your trek through the Shudderwood, you eventually see an odd sight off the secret path you are on. You see the outskirts of a set of old Kellid runes composed of standing stones on a rise.
Althamis points out the stones and approaches them carefully, daggers in hand, detecting evil in the area.
Voyla, detecting chaos, moves behind Althamis.
Tania sighs. Travelling through the Shudderwoods on an ancient path, getting ambushed by the Whispering Way, wasn't thrill enough...
With a mocking bow, she lets Althamis pass her by, then follows.
"Ah, a remnant of the ancient past when these lands were inhabited by noble savages! My colleagues from the Faculty of Barbaric Traditions and Legends have recited many a tale of those proud peoples over a pint of ale or three! How did it go, erm:
It Was My Thirteenth Year On A Cold Winter's
Day, As I Walked Through The Enchanted Forest,
I Heard The Sounds Of Horses And Men At Arms.
Or was it Men Of War? The memory's becoming a bit hazy, must be that witches' brew!
That reminds me - I have to be extra careful not to trust any benevolent strangers in the woods! Never let it be said that Kerzan Brimbelt doesn't learn his lessons! Except when he teaches others, I mean..."
As the stones get closer, Kerzan's ramblings gradually get quieter, to the relief of his companions.
Althamis does not detect any evil in the area. Voyla and Tania lookout, watching for dangers, as Kerzan investigates the runes. They are written in Kellid. His knowledge of history reminds him that ancient Kellid barbarian tribes once inhabited these lands before they were driven out by the invading Varisians. and he surmises by their content that this ring of standing stones is some sort of worship area or Kellid holy ground for what appears to be a literal translation of one of the runes on the stones, which reads: "Praise for the creature from beyond." It takes you about 5 minutes to read the rune stones.
"This is a temple then?" asks Tania, somewhat curious.
"A temple of sorts, yes. Dedicated to... A creature from beyond. To my knowledge, Kellid peoples mostly worshipped nature spirits, so it sounds a bit unusual. They have later adopted some gods worshipped by Varisians, notably Desna, so perhaps this was a site where one of them has claimed to have encountered her herald? Otherwise I struggle to imagine what kind of creature that could have been."
Kerzan walks around the stones, looking at them closely and tracing the runes with his fingers, trying to see if there is any indication of a ritual which might have taken place here.
As Kerzan examines the runes more closely and thinks hard on the subject, he remembers seeing similar runes in a presentation at the University of Lepidstadt on the followers of the Dark Tapestry and especially the religious domain called the Void, whose followers believe are one with the darkness of space, with strong ties to distant planets and the beings and creatures who live on and beyond them.
However, before Kerzan can ponder more on the subject, Voyla and Tania's keen senses pick up danger and alert the party, as demonic-looking werewolves in hybrid human form wielding long swords (six in total) step out from the nearby woods about 30' away, led by a female werewolf with red eyes dual wielding a scimitar and kukri. She has a look of disgust on her face as she addresses you all: "These woods call out for the blood of human scum trespassers on our territory....your blood! We will give you a chance to run for your lives before we end them!" The other werewolves smile and growl as they wait for you to start running.
Althamis looks back at the party and smiles. He drops his current daggers and draws the silver dagger he found embedded in the heart of the "werewolf" and his very own silver dagger. "Time to dance.."
Voyla casts Divine Favor on herself.
"What a day..." comments Tania with a shrug. Lots of nasty things in this forest. The brawler could see how it got its reputation.
She looked at the situation, noticing Althamis's selection of silverware. A good choice, she thought, but she only had her dan bong. Silver rarely keeps a good edge. Still...
"I'll run interference best I can! For starters." says Tania as she slides in front of Voyla and Kerzan, her longspear threatening the field ahead: "Come now." she mutters between clenched teeth as she readies to receive them.
Kerzan snaps out of his musings about the void beyond the stars. He shouts to his companions: "Don't forget your infusions!" as he himself quickly opens a vial of blue-ish liquid and puts in a small bird feather, that immediately dissolves inside, and then gulps it down. As soon as he does that, he begins hovering a few inches above the ground!
While preparing to hover up in the air, Kerzan also looks intently at the adversaries, hoping to glean something about their demonic heritage.